Author Archives: michaelulinedwards

NEW WRITER, OLD WRITER

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Young and inexperienced, I once started stories and quickly put down 5-10,000 words (17-35 pages). I would next wonder where to go and how to get there.

Starting a story now might take a month or more to produce 5,000 words. The difference?
Production and enthusiasm depend upon the story, whether the setting, story or character may be emphasized, and how the writer (I) feel about any of it. But the primary difference is in the author’s (my) outlook. Enthusiasm and impulse remain the same today as it was, but I am more deliberate: I know it will be a slog, write every damn word about every perceived point covering each conceivable concept. The first draft is the one time the author has the opportunity to take this overall view: think freely and make every expression idiotic, moronic or nonsensical as well as completely, profound and experimental.
All later work pares the manuscript by rewriting within the parameters of the givens of the story; next comes editing and proofreading.
The slower launch today may mean energy is not marshaled; doubts linger about the quality of the plot and confidence might be fleeting. But confidence will build throughout a writing, doing 1,000 or 2,000 words a day, and feeling content having produced 20,000 words, 50,000 words, a first draft, and the next draft. It is that build of confidence, a building of ego, which allows a writer to finish a writing.

TRUMP: PAY TAXES

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A billion, or a half-billion

Don Trump refuses to release his tax returns because he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service for the last five (5) years. Indeed, Trump says he has been audited for the last 12 years.

Trump claims he is super-rich and is a man of vast means. He claims his net worth exceeds ten billion dollars. With financial planning outside municipal bonds, Trump should have a return on capital of 15 percent, or $1,500,000,000 per year. Trump’s annual income may be higher because Trump claims he is a businessman extraordinaire, a deal maker par excellence, a money-maker nonpareil. He makes the best business deals ever. Last week he bragged his company had hundreds of deals negotiated last year.. Let’s put Trump’s ordinary income for the last five years at a 20 percent return on capital per year, or two billion, $2,000,000,000.00 a year.

Pursuant to the tax audit, suppose the amount in dispute is ten percent (10%) of two billion in income, or $200,000,000. The Internal Revenue is auditing Trump for these five years, and the total amount at issue appears to be one billion dollars, $1,000,000,000.00. OR, pursuant to the tax audit, suppose the amount in dispute is five percent of two billion, or $100,000,000.00 in income a year. At five percent the amount in dispute for five years involves a half billion dollars $500,000,000.

Should Americans give Don Trump a pass because he does not want to pay his taxes “let the little, uneducated people” pay the taxes? NO. Should Americans allow Don Trump to fleece the American people to the tune of one billion dollars, or even half that amount? NO.

The American people should be sure that Don Trump pays taxes before he is elected for any public office. If he refuses, Cheatin’ Don should be tossed into prison like other tax evaders.

AS GOOD AS IT CAN BE

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THE REPUBLIC OF PIRATES

COLIN WOODARD

This is a very readable book about diverse subjects who have very little substance. I wanted to learn about pirates who have been characterized in history, by Walt Disney, in cartoons and in art. I read this book, and I learned what happened to them and what happened to the people who put an end to them.

Pirate society, however, is not a republic.. It is similar to a mafia or an organized crime syndicate: get money by anyway possible, generally release the victims so they will go off and work to get more money and property, drink to incapacity every day, rape and otherwise be included in a society of men seeking spontaneity, caprice and ease. Sociologically, pirate society was similar to cults; it has elements of male dominated philosophies and societies which appeared in twentieth century countries where mass-murder was accepted (Germany, Cambodia and Rwanda).

A full analysis of the sociology is likely impossible. There are too few historical sources; projecting modern theories into the Seventieth Century seems impossible.

Despite these shortcomings this book is enjoyably informative. One thing it tells the modern reader is the world of the past was not settled and peaceful. There were murderers, rapists and robbers then. But there were also unusually modern situations which may never be found in any university history. The footnote on page 98 would enliven any book, although I don’t know what it has to do with pirates:

Young Sarah Walker (1700-1731) would eventually marry William Fairfax, for
whom Fairfax County, Virginia is named. Her daughter, Anne, was George
Washington’s mistress, a particularly awkward situation as she was married to
his brother, Lawrence Washington. Anne’s own brother, George Fairfax, apparently
had some African features; he suffered humiliation during a childhood visit to
England when his paternal relatives began speculating aloud as to whether his skin
would turn black at puberty.

BURNING REPUBLICANS

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On social media and now on TV is a man, who says he’s burning his registration certificate showing he is a documented Republican. He is a Trump fan who is upset that Don did not read the Colorado Convention Rules and get any delegates.

Foremost, who keeps such a document that unfolds to a 2 1/2 by 1 1/2 foot table matte reflecting party affiliation? As far as I can tell on the screen the guy is burning the deed of his house. [I note the current Republican Party no longer can be accused as being tree killers. They hand out plastic cards showing party membership. Zut alors! There are no auxiliary benefits like discount rental cars.

Next, the man appears of the Boomer generation and the last thing he burned in 1968 was his Registration Card for the draft. That card is 2 by 4 inches.

Someone has taken the precaution of removing matches from this man’s reach. He used a barbecue lighter to get the flame agoing to the big paper. Think of the change of utility and cultural and legal implications. In 1968 when burning a draft card or lighting a joint, it was a secret affair. Be careful and use a match. Nowadays in Colorado, one openly uses the barbecue equipment to keep the flame agoing along a bomber.

Don Trump said he liked the uneducated (the ignorant). He will do nothing to improve their fate. Don Trump likes potheads. He’ll supply more weed and make billions. Don Trump also accepts endorsements from white power losers like David Duke. Two of three Americans distrust Don Trump; they also dislike him. Groups of disgusting, horrid Don Trump supporters can go on and on and on, and Americans are free to speculate, add to and further publicize the list of undesirables.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

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Englishman Matthew Arnold wrote criticism about criticism in the last half of the nineteenth century. In an essay The Modern Spirit, Range of Modern Criticism, Arnold observes:

Philistinism! – we have not the expression in English. Perhaps we have not the word because we have so much of the thing…The French had adopted the term epicier (grocer), to designate the sort of being whom the Germans designate by the term Philistine; but the French term, – besides that it casts a slur upon a respectable class, composed of living and susceptible members, while the original Philistines are dead and buried long ago, – is really…in itself much less apt and expressive than the German form.

Arnold goes on to argue that the English should adopt philistinism, as the literary term he believes appropriate. The French word is not precise. In fact it conjures many meanings. Someone might be offended especially French grocers.

Arnold misspeaks. The French know epicier is the correct word because of the varied meanings it carries. The French know food; they know what to buy and where. The French themselves see no disrespect to any part of their business community. The French know there are many, many, many, many, many epicier ordinaire in France.

I stumbled across this criticism on criticism, and if Matt Arnold is the sort of person generating this sort of malarky plaguing everyone, everywhere we should be careful not to call anyone a Philistine, or an Etruscan or a Druid.

WIVES AND PICTURES

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Don Trump is upset that his wife’s photos have been reshopped on the Internet. He is threatening to spill the goods on Heidi Cruz, who will be praying in any photographs. If it comes down to casting aspersions by Don or Heidi, ADVANTAGE to Heidi. She likely knows where all the bodies are buried in the foundations of his buildings.

It does not upset Don Trump that his wife’s photos are rereleased: She’s living proof that 40 is the new 20, and that she, indeed, is a female of the human species.

It bothers Don Trump that he looks like he does. He appears like an orange, fat, old Buddha. Comparing photos, everyone will recognize him for who he is, a dirty old man. (He did say he wanted to date his daughter.) Now everyone has to hear Don Trump grieve, and they will wonder where is the substitute hubby. Can anyone who is beautiful, graceful and calm ever go for an offensive, loud mouthed, abrasive oaf? Does part of Don Trump’s deal making abilities include robbing the cradle, or is there a Pygmalion effect here?

One point must be made for the American people and decency. In the photographs Mrs. Trump wears few clothes. No where should similar photos of Don Trump be published. Instead, he should abide Mark Twain, Clothes make the man. And Twain explained why, Naked people have little or no influence in society.

YOUTH, END OF THE TETHER

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Joseph Conrad

Not enough kind, superlative and complimentary words can be accumulated to praise and recommend these two short stories. Each takes one side of a sailor’s life, Youth(20 years old) and End of the Tether (Sea captain in his mid-sixties).

The Youth has his whole life before him. His ship becomes wrecked. The master is unlikeable. It is a struggle to get off the wreck and find a life boat. No one knows where they are. They don’t know where land is. They are hungry and thirsty. But he navigates the boat to land and to safety. With the hardship and having no money, does the Youth want to return home [in Europe]? And miss Eastern Asia!

The story is told in narration. The teller is either or knows the Youth. Conversation is a very effective way to tell this story.

End of the Tether is about a Captain who saved, owned his own ship, has a daughter in Australia who needs his financial help and remains well-regarded. The corporation in which his retirement is invested slides into bankruptcy. There is no recovery. He sells his ship.

Although he is frail and his faculties are fading fast, the Captain returns to the sea to earn money to help his daughter, He knows he can be the Captain of a ship if anyone will hire him, and he has a trusted crew. The ship’s owner and chief engineer is a man disliked by all that meet and know him. He does not like the arrangement forced upon him by the Captain. That sea dog seems immune from the many harsh criticisms, empty threats and bad words coming from the shipowner.

The Captain simply does his job. Late in the story the reader learns the Captain is blind. Unaware, the owner plots to send the ship off course; it will be wrecked at sea and sunk. The insurance will be paid. As it happens, if the Captain had his sight, he would have uncovered the plot. But the ship sinks. Everyone including the owner but not the Captain abandons ship. If the Captain is saved he loses his reputation; he was responsible for losing the ship – he was blind!

The jumble of influences, events and circumstances coming at the Captain play out well. For both stories the vim and vigor of youth carrying through to middle age’s vinegar – knowledge, thinking and reflection – drop off in later age to consideration, judgment and wisdom. As an elder the Captain knows what to do, but he has neither the mental nor physical abilities to undertake the effort. He is alone; no one can help.

It has been a while since I’ve read Joseph Conrad. I’ve gone through many of the novels. But this reading – I know I have to find more Conrad to continue reading excellent literature.

HOCHSCHILD’S MISREADING

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On March 18, 2016, Second D, page 5, Adam Hochschild ventured into an area where he lacks expertise, knowledge and imagination. He described why Mark Twain’s Life On the Mississippi need not be read in its entirety. Being familiar with Twain’s work, I am surprised. I’ve read works from historians competing with Hochschild for readers, and I now wonder if I ought to read his books. The world is more multilayered than Mr. Hochschild appreciates. Regarding Life On the Mississippi he has two grand oversights.

Hochschild stumbled upon the fact that Life On is a companion book to Huckleberry Finn. That novel is firmly set in the 1830s. Life On presents contemporary observations which were added to Twain’s previous publication of Old Times on the Mississippi (@1875).

In 1882 books and basic knowledge of the Mississippi River Valley were scare. Twain had written about 25 chapters of the novel but needed a refresher course about locations and the sense and feel of the South, and the river. In 1882 he traveled up the river, noting events and occurrences, present time to 45 years before. Not much had changed.

Life On came from Clemen’s notebooks and scrapbooks. Prior to William Faulkner’s observation about the past in the South, Clemens realized in the South that nothing was ever the past. In 1884 he told the world that in Life On.

The second point is what the South did with its history, this time and subject is described by a prominent American historian who quotes Life On the Mississippi from a late passage. SPOILER ALERT! Hochschild’s fans should stop reading NOW!

…Colonel Marshall graphically described the scene demonstrating Lee’s
posture and his forward wave of the hand as Jackson rode away.The
movement became the subject of a painting completed in 1869…Mark
Twain studied the original in New Orleans and reflected on the importance
of explicitly telling people the retrospectively defined meaning of what they
they see when one offers them a historical representation…Unless the
painting were properly labeled Twain said, it might readily be taken to
portray “Last Interview between Lee and Jackson” or “First Interview
between Lee and Jackson” or “Jackson Reporting a Great Victory” or
“Jackson Apologizing for a Heavy Defeat” or “Jackson Asking Lee for a
Match.” “It tells one story and a sufficient one; for it says quite plainly and
satisfactorily, ‘Here are Lee and Jackson together.’ The artist would have
made it tell that this is Lee and Jackson’s last interview if he could have
done it. But he couldn’t, for there wasn’t any way to do it. A good legible
label is usually worth, for information, a ton of significant attitude and
expression in a historical picture.”
Royster, Charles, The Destructive War, Knopf, NY, 1991, p. 203-204.

 

REPUBLICAN DEBATE – MIAMI

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Everyone was supposed to be nice to everyone else, and mostly they were. This debate was about substance, not scorn or ridicule.

The candidate demonstrating no ability was Don Trump. When asked about Obama’s policies toward Cuba, Don Trump, the deal maker, said he would continue them: “Fifty (50) years of sanctions have not worked.”

Marco Rubio was asked the same question and he did not need a panel of consults as Trump said he would use. Out came the facts and arguments that destroyed Obama and Trump’s positions. [Whether anyone agrees with Rubio or not, he gave reasons.] If was such an orderly presentation of destruction that it seemed like Rubio was numbering them. The first four are 1. free and fair elections in Cuba, 2. promote and support free speech and a free press, 3. eliminate the Cuban security-secret police who are oppressing the Cuban people, 4. free all political prisoners.

While Rubio was marching through his points, Don Trump looked at him; the audience could see no poker face: I wish I could insult Little Marco because he’s making feel like a shrimp right now. But I promised not to. If Rubio insults me, I may have to explain the folds of blubber on my belly, in my brain any why I can’t find anything. I didn’t know Little Marco could count so high. When’s he going to stop?

After Rubio finished, Don Trump got to respond. He said he would negotiate tougher deals: Make sure when the land for the eighteenth hole of the golf course is situated, it is not sloped toward the sea.

Don Trump should agree to no more debates of substance. All debates hold allow a full panoply of insults, schoolyard accusations, unsubstantiated gossip about girlfriends, wives and former wives, and journalists along with ne’er-do-well offspring.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND ENDORSEMENTS

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Today Ben Carson, MD, fabulous neurosurgeon, endorsed Don Trump, with a mixed blessing and an unclear evaluation.

Doctor Ben remembered his psychiatric classes from med school (necessary for any neurosurgeon to remember and know) and said Don Trump was a man of two minds. Based upon that statement at this time, the public can come to their own diagnosis of this multi-minded candidate.

There is the public (the first) Don, who is like a soda-jerk who is also the chief yell leader for the football team. The second Don is pensive, reflective and thoughtful.

What to make of the second Don? When he can, the second Don has revealed himself to the American public convincingly. He has difficulty stating full positions, although he states well and strings together topic sentences. Seldom does he utter a paragraph where the sentences are connected with one another any logical fashion. The second Don’s pensiveness, reflection and thoughtfulness arise because he is bewildered, befuddled and gaping. The British would call the second Don, potty.

Of course the American public does not know because it is a secret: Doctor Ben has obtained a grant to observe and to study Don Trump and write a report of this findings. In the end Doctor Ben may find that this enforcement of the second Don means he has actually endorsed Harold Stassen.

During the Miami debate Don Trump said Doctor Ben knew and had lots of good ideas about education. It also sounded like Don Trump would appoint Doctor Ben as Secretary of Education. There is a problem with these supporting words from Don Trump who has promised to eliminate the Department of Education. All the education ideas of Doctor Ben will disappear into the closest paper shredder.

Doctor Ben’s enforcement is full of ambiguity. A mixed enforcement of Don One or the Next Don brings to mind a situation that happened to Benjamin Franklin, while he was the American Diplomatic Corp in Paris during the American Revolutionary War. Franklin found hundreds of young men, second-third sons of nobility and clergymen on his doorstep. Each was looking for rank and privilege in the American Army and war service. Thereafter, each hoped to receive lands, wealth and position. Each man had at least one letter of recommendation (endorsement) from a patron, a nobleman, a churchman, a military superior, or a prince of a place revealed only later in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

One Paris afternoon two men arrived on Franklin’s door step, and neither of them had letters of recommendation (endorsements). To Franklin’s further surprise, each man orally recommended there other.

Doctor Ben (like Ben Franklin 230 years ago in Paris) plus the American people must know and understand more before any endorsement carries weight.